The Port of Shenzhen Rejects U.S. Corn Shipment due to Transgenic Content

China’s quality watchdog said on Friday [29 November 2013] that China has recently rejected 60,000 tons of corn imports from the United States which contains unapproved transgenic content. Local authorities in the southern port city of Shenzhen found MIR162, a type of insect-resistant transgenic corn, among a batch of over 60,000 tons of corn imported from the United States, said Chen Xitong, spokesman for the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ)…Full article: China Daily Nov 2013

ChinaAg Comments

From 2006 to 2009, Chinese corn imports were relatively flat and ranged from 79,000 to 164,000 MTs per year. Imports began to take off in 2010 (specifically from June-November), and topped 1.6 million MTs. The following year saw a slight uptick to 1.7 million MTs imported, with values climbing past the US$500 million mark. From Jan-Oct 2012 (latest available data), imports surged to unprecedented levels, exceeding 4 million MTs.

The U.S. has been the dominant supplier of corn to China. Burma, Laos, and Thailand are small secondary suppliers with shipments generally under 40,000 MTs per year. Argentina and Ukraine were recently (2012) put on China’s approved list of corn suppliers and could emerge as potential competitors to the U.S. as China looks to diversity its supply base.